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Gamerati News Update: 22 February 2016

Monsters wanted at Widower’s Wood, GUMSHOE for the teenage detective from Evil Hat, Magic the Gathering: Eternal Masters, and the ESA recognize the need for more women making video games. Those are the four news of the longest GNU to date!

In this board game, not heroes… monsters are wanted!

Widower’s Wood is a board game by Privateer Press using its Iron Kingdoms setting. You might know it from the award-winning RPG line and miniature wargame. What sets Widower’s Wood apart from the previous Iron Kingdoms board game, The Undercity, and really from other products using the setting, is that the players take in the role not of heroes or mercenaries, but of monsters. The swamp village of Widower’s Wood faces a peril that could spell doom for all when a witch doctor looks to awaken a long forgotten horror. So you need to fight fire with fire. 2–4 players will choose between Skarg the Voracious (a Tharn), Vaskis The Knotkeeper (a Blackclad Druid), Agata (a Farrow) or Olo (a Croak). They must cooperate to free the swamp of its perils at the same time accruing power for themselves.

The boardgame uses the same basic rules of The Undercity. The action is spaced through seven chapters or adventures that use a modular board. As with anything Privateer Press does, the miniature design beautiful and detailed. The game is being kickstarted right now. With 26 days to go, it’s already grazing 200% completion. What I love the most about it (apart from the gorgeous miniatures) is that it’s a straightforward Kickstarter campaign: three pledge levels, the more basic with only the game and stretch goals, a deluxe edition with the first expansion, and the Premium Collector’s Edition that comes in a wooden box made by Meeple Realty featuring a faux-blackhide-wrastler-scale finish. Simon Berman, the Social Marketing Manager at Privateer Press, explained to me why a themed box for the Collector’s Edition:

“Well, we knew we wanted to do a Premium Collector’s Edition, but we weren’t entirely sure what it was gonna be. Then we saw a sample of an alligator hide for the box and we made up our minds about five seconds later.”

So you see, this game is all about the cool. As well it should be. Thank you, Simon! Widower’s Wood is expected to be delivered in January, 2017. I wouldn’t miss it if I were you.

Magic: The Gathering Modern Masters series is coming back this year as Eternal Masters.

Eternal Masters is all about bringing the household names (or cards) of the game into the Eternal formats Vintage, Commander, Cube and, of course, Legacy. Designed for the draft format of play, Eternal Masters will bring back select cards throughout the game’s very rich history. Some cards will keep their original artwork as others will have new ones.

Expect to see displays with 24 boosters in stores on June 10 (each booster will cost $9.99). The Magic Online version will be available from June 17 up until July 6 for $6.99.

As always, WotC is keeping the card list pretty close to their chest, but they have assured the community that they will keep not reprinting anything from the Reserved List.

Evil Hat has unveiled more details about Bubblegumshoe, a role-playing game in the vein of Veronica Mars, Nancy Drew and other teen mystery adventures. It’s aimed at high-schoolers age 13 and up, using a streamlined version of the GUMSHOE System created in 2007 by Robin D. Laws.

The hardcover 272-page book will detail rules to create character web of relationships, rules for physical and social combat, a smattering of short mystery starters (along with a full-fledged one), a simple setting system to help the GM create their own town but also a complete description of the ready-to-go setting of Drewsbury.

The CEO of Entertainment Software Association says there’s not enough women in the industry.

Men and women play videogames in equal amounts, but they aren’t making video games in equal amounts. Michael Gallagher, the CEO of the company responsible for E3 and for lobbying for the video game industry in Washington, DC, gave at talk at the DICE Summit that happened in Las Vegas last week saying that at present 22% of the jobs in the industry are held by women. That’s above the average of tech in general but it’s still a shameful number. Gallagher stressed that video games need more diversity and the companies and universities need to do their part towards that goal. In his own words, “…that’s not good enough and we know it’s not good enough.”

He also said that’s encouraging that triple-A titles are now allowing players to choose female protagonists, such as Call of Duty: Black Ops III and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, franchises that typically only had men as heroes.

I’m usually cynical when it comes to equality in a field so riddled with misogyny such as video games, but when a person with the caliber of Michael Gallagher picks up the banner, even my cold heart can be hopeful.